Coverings have been used to protect and otherwise serve mammalian bodies for centuries. Body coverings have been constructed with portions thereof requiring closure. A myriad of fastening devices have been employed to permit opening and closing of body coverings. Among these include drawstrings, snaps, hook-and-loop fastening systems, pins, buttons, and the like. Ease and multiple cycling of various refastenable systems varies according to integrity of seams surrounding such closures, integrity of a fastening means, and manual dexterity required for fastening and unfastening through multiple cycles. For example, use of buttons or drawstrings on a hospital gown for a human patient requires considerable manual dexterity with often unacceptable and uncomfortable results.
Body coverings are integral or multi-component materials and can include without limitation garments, medical drapes, medical gowns, medical smocks, footwear coverings, ostomy appliances, incontinence products, diapers, feminine hygiene products, industrial clean room garments, tube or tool fixation restraints, body transfer sheets, fluid or exudate collection pouches, and other components, (such as splints or arm boards), capable of being joined together or with other components to function in close proximity with at least a portion of a mammalian body.
In recent years, disposable body coverings have become increasingly popular. Among disposable body coverings enjoying considerable popularity are disposable children's diapers. Refastenable pressure sensitive adhesive tape closure systems have become common in use with disposable children's diapers where back and front sections of a diaper are closed in a refastenable manner. Single-coated pressure sensitive adhesive tape tabs on the back portion of the diaper are releasably fastened to a release strip resident on the back portion of the diaper using the single-coated adhesive surface. These tabs are unpeeled and applied in a releasable fashion using the single-coated adhesive surface to a release surface on the front portion of the diaper. The same single coating of pressure sensitive adhesive both releases from the back portion of the diaper and adheres to the front portion of the diaper. Such tabs strategically placed on the front portion of the diaper create a snug-fitting diaper where portions of the back of the diaper overlap portions of the front of the diaper. Because such tabs have a single coating of adhesive, such tabs adhere in a position extending from the point of overlap of the back portion of the diaper to the front portion of the diaper. Thus, the tabs remain exposed to possible disruption and disconnection.
Representative examples of such single-coated tape disposable diaper closure systems are found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,710,190 (Wood et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 4,861,635 (Carpenter et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,801,480 (Panza et al.), and U.S. Pat. No. 5,019,071 (Bany et al). A double-coated tape, for use with undergarments, having an array of bluntly pointed stems protruding beyond the pressure sensitive adhesive layer contacting the undergarment is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,959,265 (Wood et al) .